FORMER Barnsley captain Angus MacDonald is looking forward to coming up against some old team-mates when his new club Exeter City visit on Tuesday from 7.45pm.
The defender, now 32, joined the Reds from non-league Torquay United in the summer of 2016 and was captained that season by first Conor Hourihane, now interim boss at Oakwell, and then fellow centre-back Marc Roberts who he could face on Tuesday.
MacDonald was then named skipper following Roberts’ sale in 2017 but left the following January for Hull City.
He told the Chronicle: “I have amazing memories of my time at Oakwell.
“I have a lot of respect and time for Barnsley for giving me the chance to show what I could do on a bigger stage.
“I haven’t got anything but good words for how they treated me.
“Conor always had that side to him that he could go on and be a very good coach one day. It’s fallen for him and I am sure he will do really well.
“I still have a very good relationship with Robbo. It was a really enjoyable time for both of us. We will probably pick each other up at corners and have a chat after the game.”
MacDonald’s final few months at Barnsley were unusual, with then head coach Paul Heckingbottom saying he had a ‘significant iron deficiency’ which had kept him out of action. He successfully fought bowel cancer in 2019.
Barnsley had to pay Hull £1million after a tribunal found they failed to disclose relevant information to the Tigers about MacDonald’s medical history.
He said: “It was disappointing how it ended. I didn’t want that.
“It was a real honour to captain the club and a great experience.
“I told Paul Heckingbottom I really wanted it. It just wasn’t meant to be that season and I moved on.
“The health issues took full effect but even to this day I get support from Barnsley fans for what I went through which shows what a great club it is.”
MacDonald said his late equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday at Oakwell was his Reds highlight and he sometimes wonders what might have happened if, having been seventh in January 2017, they had not sold Hourihane, Sam Winnall and James Bree.
“When people ask me about Barnsley I say the first season was a case of ‘what could have been’. If you look at where some of the players ended up, we had a special set of players.”
Gary Caldwell’s Exeter are 17th in the table, nine points clear of the drop zone and nine behind the Reds.
MacDonald said: “My full focus is to win the game and finish as high as we can with Exeter. Our aim is to get in the top half of the table.
“I keep an eye on Barnsley results and speak to some of the boys there. Things haven’t gone as they wanted this season. But, if the fans get behind them, Oakwell is a tough place to go.”
Hourihane said: “Angus was here with me for a short space of time and did really well. We had some fond times together.
“Being a young manager there are always players I have played against or one or two I have played with. I played with Ben Purrington as well at Plymouth.
“It’s nice because it means I am not too old for the time being.
“Credit to Angus, he did very well when he was here and he’s gone on to have a decent career off the back of it.”
